Israel

National Dementia Strategies

Developing a comprehensive plan

In the years 2012-2013, a group of multi-organisational and inter-disciplinary experts worked to formulate recommendations for a National Plan for Addressing Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Types of Dementia.‎ A draft document was developed by the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute and validated by experts in the various focus areas.

The group’s recommendations were presented to the Israeli Parliament Health and Welfare Committee, where they were adopted, and subsequently approved by the Director General of the Ministry of Health as a basis for the national plan. In September 2013, the Ministry of Health officially took the lead in implementing the National Plan for Addressing Alzheimer's Disease and other Dementias.

From prevention to end of life care

The National Plan is steered by an implementation committee, appointed by the Director General of the Ministry of Health, whose members represent the relevant ministries – namely the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry for Social Equality and the National Insurance Institute as well as relevant non-governmental organisations including the four Sick Funds-HMOs (Health Maintenance Organisations), JDC-Eshel and the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute.

The vision of the national plan is to enable persons suffering from dementia and their families to lead dignified lives, with the assistance of the appropriate services. These services encompass all disease stages, from the stage of prevention, through timely diagnosis and treatment to the end of life. The plan is based on inter-disciplinary work, professional treatment principles for people with dementia, support of family members and collaboration of all parties involved in aging, both at the government level, the Sick Funds-HMOs, as well as with NGOs such as JDC-ESHEL, which promotes planning and implementing new programmes and EMDA, Israel's Alzheimer's Society and a member of Alzheimer Europe.

The major goals of the national program are as follows:

Increasing public awareness of dementia

Improving health care services

Improving social services

Supporting family members

Adapting nursing homes to the needs of dementia patients

Developing and expanding the training of the professional personnel who treat these patients‎ as well as the paraprofessionals.

Research and development

Since its inception, the National Dementia Plan of Israel has seen the implementation of programs and processes in the areas of awareness, improving health services with the Sick Funds-HMOs, support programs for family members and training of professionals and non-professionals working with persons with dementia.

Involving people with dementia

EMDA is one of the initiators of the National Plan and remains active in its implementation. The society leads long-term processes in all domains related to caring for the caregiver and developing programs for improving the quality of life of people with dementia. EMDA was formed in 1988 and operates a support network of some 50 branches throughout the country.